all placed in the
same category. He conceived of them all as baby-worshippers,
flower-lovers, &c.--all alike.

Dr Burton was excessively kind-hearted within the limits placed by this
great want. To any sorrow or suffering which he could understand he
craved with characteristic impatience to carry immediate relief; and the
greatest enjoyment of his life, especially of its later years, was to
give pleasure to children, poor people, or the lower animals. Many
humble folks will remember the bunches of flowers he thrust silently
into their hands, and the refreshment he never failed to press on their
acceptance in his own peculiar manner.

He was liberal of money to a fault. He never refused any application
even from a street beggar. He quite allowed that these ought not to be
encouraged, but he urged that the municipality ought to take charge of
them, and prevent their appealing to the compassion of the public, who
could not, as he said, be expected to perform the disagreeable task of
disciplining vagrants at the wages of a penny a case. No printer's devil
or other chance messenger failed to receive his sixpence or shilling,
besides a comfortable meal. It was his constant custom to ask his sons
if any of their wants were unsupplied, if they required money for
furnishing their workshop or laboratory, or for any of their studies or
amusements. It is but just to them to add that the question was almost
always answered in the negative.

Many of the "motley crew" along with whom Dr Burton received his
education fell into difficulties in the course of their lives. An
application from one of them always met with a prompt response. To send
double the amount asked on such occasions was his rule, if money was the
object desired. In his earlier life he would also spare no trouble in
endeavouring to help these unfortunates to help themselves. As he grew
old he was less zealous, probably from being less sanguine of success,
in this service.

On Saturday the 13th of August the mortal remains of John Hill Burton
were laid beside those of his infant child in the lovely little
churchyard of Dalmeny. It had been at first intended that he should be
buried in the Dean Cemetery, where his mother and his first wife were
interred, and where his valued friend William Brodie[22] had erected a
beautiful monument over their graves; but after orders had been given to
this effect, his wife became strongly possessed by the wish to carry out
his rep